Second, as a white, North American male without formal counseling training, I expected the social distance to create issues in building rapport, preventing me from being able to have an effective dialogue with a female, Nigerian victim of ST. While the interviews may have included some initial rigidity, having other Nigerians and NGO members present may have aided in allowing the women to relax and speak more freely. However, having other Nigerians around may have affected the answers to the more sensitive questions, though, as previously mentioned, this should not have overly affected the research. Also, before the interviews, I consulted with a clinical psychologist and several professors to determine how best to proceed. One key piece of advice from Melissa Farley Melissa Farley is a clinical psychologist with dozens of publications in the field of violence against women, and the executive director of Prostitution Research & Education, which set me at ease was, "There are years and years of psychological research demonstrating that it does not cause people to fall apart if you ask about sexual abuse".

The third potential problem existed in the form of context. While I did seek out opportunities to do fieldwork in Nigeria, I was unable to find any organization to host an internship, paid or unpaid. The chance to experience Nigerian institutions in person would have been invaluable in the overall conceptualization of the institutional framework. However, given my experience living and traveling in different regions of the world, I know that the psychological and social distance between the local people and I would cause me to experience a different set of institutions than the individuals involved in ST, possibly leading to bias. I believe that my primary data, the literature on institutions and ST in Nigeria, and my discussions with Nigerian graduate students in Moscow are sufficient for the purposes of this research.

3. Findings

The initial observation that came out of my research was that there was a clear pattern within ST. While there were slight deviations, they appeared to be exceptions and not the norm. The respondents had all dealt with traffickers performing specific roles, and conducting specific activities in specific locations. From the patterns, I was able to reconstruct the ST process and cycle. Recognizing the cycle, I was then able to analyze the forces creating movement through the cycle, which alerted me to the power mechanisms utilized by traffickers to maintain control over people. The highly structured cycle and the control mechanisms used in conjunction with it gave the first hint of the institutionalization of ST. Deeper analysis with this in mind confirmed it. Analyzing the interactions between ST and its institutional framework highlighted its embeddedness. However, there were key differences between the Moscow and Italian cycles, so I will elaborate on what was found and explain these differences and their effect.

3.1 Nigeria - Moscow ST Cycle

The Nigeria - Moscow ST process takes the form of a cycle comprising ten phases, as can be seen below. These phases are distinguishable based on the fact that they all contain different actors and physical locations, and that pressures exist between them to facilitate movement.

To summarize the cycle, people are recruited by somebody they know and offered the `opportunity' to work in Moscow as a prostitute, with the traffickers making the arrangements and paying the expenses. The people are expected to pay them back, usually about $50,000 for women, less for men, though they are told that it will only take about 6 months to do that, after which, they will be able to make a lot of money for themselves and their families.

Figure 2 The boxes with solid lines represent, more or less, definite phases, while the boxes with the dotted line do not necessarily occur.

When asked why she came to Russia, one respondent replied, "Because I had the connection." When I asked for clarification about why she used the connection to come to Russia, she said, "The woman who brought me here told me I can work…I can have a free life. That's why". When I asked about her recruiter, she said it was a neighbor she knew for three years beforehand, who seemed to have a lot of money, and that, "Yes, she's a very nice woman… she gives out…so it peaked my interest". She also said that the recruiter had two children, though she never met them as they were out of the country, and she did not know where.

After they agree to the deal, the person is introduced to somebody who takes care of the administration. This facilitator is responsible for acquiring passports, visas, booking transportation, and anything else that needs doing. The administration period usually lasts several months in which the person and the facilitator do not meet. When asked about the administration, a second respondent said, "The woman told me, she said yes, I will have my documents and everything…that she will do my passport and everything…that is not a problem…that she will do everything."

When everything is arranged, the person will have to go through a juju ritual to seal the deal. As the traffickers are making a sizeable, upfront investment in the person, which cannot be legally enforced, the juju (African traditional religion) serves as a spiritual pact between both parties. It also acts as a blessing of protection for them as well. A juju priest performs the ritual, which varies, and may include the sacrifice of a chicken and the drinking of its blood in an alcoholic mixture; the collection of personal items such as hair, fingernails, blood, and underwear; the chewing of the kola nut Chewing of the kola nut is common during traditional ceremonies throughout much of West Africa; and the recital of the pact, which if broken carries with it a punishment of death, sometimes extended to the family, as well (Ikeora, 2016; Suuntaus, 2015). The first respondent described the situation: "The man (juju priest)…he was very fat, and not tall. He was the uncle of my madam. He gave me some incantations to read, and then gave me the kola [nut]". The second respondent also said, "I had to say that I will not take police to arrest him…that he brought me here".

The day after the ritual, the person flies, usually alone, to Moscow. Upon arriving, they are picked up by a Nigerian who was hired for the day to do so. He retrieves the passport and tells them it will be returned when they complete their debt. He then brings the person to their madam who may immediately outline the sex work that they will be doing and begin taking photos, some of them nude, for online advertisement. The second respondent describes her first `work' week:

"For the first week, I didn't work. I didn't understand what was I supposed to do. She said maybe I should go home. That's when we started having problems. That's when she started being rude to me. I had no way to go home from Russia, so that's when I decided I should pay her some money…to work and pay".

Sometimes, however, there is a period of waiting after the receipt of the person and before the beginning of prostitution. In the several months of administration in Nigeria, the official timeframe for the visa becomes partially expired. This is so the person, upon entering Russia, quickly becomes illegal and has to rely on the traffickers for protection from law enforcement. When the person becomes illegal, they are forced into prostitution. The second respondent went through this situation and described it here:

"For the first 2 months, I didn't work. I just stay house. And then she took me to work in the salon. Salon, for me in Africa, is where they make hair. [laughing] It is not the salon I used to know, it is another different salon. It is house runs".

During the debt bondage, which can last several years, the person is not allowed freedom of movement. They only leave home to go to work and must return immediately after. This is to prevent them from running away or being arrested, securing the investment of the madam, who was the original sponsor for the trafficking operation. Money is also never passed directly into the hands of the person when being paid for sex. However, they do occasionally beg for and receive tips from clients. The forms of prostitution Nigerians are often involved in include brothels, online escort services, and street work. To ensure the safety of brothels and street workers, local police are regularly bribed. The second respondent describes her brushes with the police:

"Every time the police came to the salon, they don't carry me. They pack up all the other girls, but they leave me. I don't know why. When they (brothel manager) came back, they were surprised I was still there" I do not know exactly what may have caused this to happen to her, but some extra information about brothels may help. The respondent's madam did not live or work at the brothel - the brothel has its own manager. Madams make arrangements with brothel managers to accept their associates working and living there. In return, the brothel manager keeps about one third of the money made by the person, while the other two thirds are passed directly to the madam, going towards the person's debt. So, all of the people working in the brothel are associated with different madams, though it may be possible that many are associates of just one. Based on everything I heard from all of the interviews in Moscow, it seems that the police make individual deals with everybody. The brothel manager will have their deal with the police, and the madams will have their deals. It seems to me that in this situation, there was a problem with somebody's deal, but not with the respondent's madam..

The conditions during debt bondage are very poor, and the people are barely fed, sharing a room with several others, and sometimes beaten by their madam or clients. Many clients force them to have sex without a condom, and infections, diseases, and pregnancy are common.

To escape debt bondage requires paying the full debt, escaping, or being arrested. Little is known of the people who pay their debt because they do not come into contact with authorities or NGOs. They may continue to work with the same madam to take advantage of her network; do freelance sex work; or become a madam and begin trafficking other people. For those who are arrested or escape, they usually make contact with the Nigerian Embassy who assists them by directing them to NGOs for medical and legal support, including repatriation assistance. Sometimes, when arrested, the people are sent to a deportation camp where they live in very poor conditions, and it may take months or years before they are sent home.

Upon returning to Nigeria, there are organizations such as NAPTIP and Pathfinders, whose goal is to protect and support returning victims, though most people return to trafficking as they have very few options as an uneducated person in Nigeria, and especially as a woman. Of the twelve people that I interviewed in April-June 2016 and who were assisted and repatriated, later follow-up found that by August 2016 most of them had been re-trafficked to Western Europe, with one dying en route From personal communication with Kehinde in September 2016 in Moscow. He spent the summer in Nigeria following up on the people that he had repatriated, and talking to their friends and family members, he learned of their re-trafficking..

3.1.1 Nigeria - Moscow Power - Dependence Mechanisms

From the beginning, the person is at a power disadvantage due to the social distance between them and the recruiter. Also, in the case of family involvement, the abuse of a position of authority and vulnerability put the person at a much greater disadvantage. Then, once the deal is agreed to, the costs of the administration that is carried out adds the burden of financial and social indebtedness to the traffickers. After the juju ritual, the people find themselves spiritually bound to the agreement, with the risk being extended to the family, which allows for them to be controlled without violence. Upon landing, alone, in Moscow, not knowing the local language, and having been convinced of the ruthlessness of the Russian authorities, the person finds themselves wanting the protection of the traffickers. When their status becomes illegal, this necessity for protection is compounded. Once they confront the reality of their work, even if they do not want to continue, the situation they find themselves in, and the overarching feeling of indebtedness and powerlessness, causes them to give in and comply. Being under house arrest without a personal phone or the internet means that they remain ignorant to their surroundings and situation, preventing them from being able to learn of other opportunities. And finally, deprived of receiving cash-in-hand means that if they run, they find themselves penniless and illegal on the streets of Moscow where they do not speak the language to be able to ask for help. It is easy to recognize that even though the trafficking is voluntary, the traffickers do not allow for the person to change their mind.

3.2 Nigeria - Italy

The Nigeria - Italy ST process also takes the form of a cycle usually comprising fourteen phases, as can be seen below. These phases are also distinguishable based on the fact that they all contain different actors, physical locations, and that pressures exist between them to facilitate movement.

Figure 3 The boxes with solid lines represent, more or less, definite phases, while the box with the dotted line does not necessarily occur.

Given the higher prevalence of trafficking to Italy than to Russia, the majority of the recruitment starts within the family as they seek to send their daughters abroad to support them in Nigeria. When males go, it is usually a personal choice, but in both cases, traffickers are usually sought out to provide the trafficking service. Given Italy's fame as a travel destination, less promotion is necessary than for Moscow. Trafficking to Italy is also much cheaper than to Russia and usually involves a debt of $25,000-40,000 USD for females if they travel by land, or $5,000-15,000 for males. Males are perceived as not as valuable as females, though they have more options for work. Nearly all of the information about the Italian cycle comes from interviews with Ekhikhebolo in February and March 2017 in Naples. Given her unique experience of being trafficked, and then having worked for 17 years in anti-trafficking in Italy, where her background enables her to have open access to trafficked women who consider her their sister and have no reason to lie to her, Ekhikhebolo has information that nobody else but her could possibly have, making her testimony much more valuable than any published paper. Her information is also in line with what the published papers do have, leaving me no room to doubt her.

The administration is different than for Moscow in that legal documents and visas are not necessary. Forged documents will permit them to cross the desert to the sea, and then no documents are required when arriving as a fleeing refugee in Italian waters. Once a madam has been found to sponsor the trafficking, the Italian administrative process only requires the creation of a fake passport, for which groups exist to do so, the juju ritual, and the connection with a `boga,' or `connection man' to arrange the journey.

The journey begins with an uneventful bus ride to the Niger border. Unlike trafficking to Russia, many are sent together to Italy, sometimes hundreds. The border crossing depends on the boga - if money has been made available, he will pay for their entry. If not, there are two options, either he will send those without money to run around the border crossing, out of sight of border guards, or he will allow the guards to rape several people in return for letting them all cross.

Once in Niger, everybody is loaded onto modified `Hilux' trucks which can carry up to 200 people, consisting of the people being trafficked, the driver, and the `collaborators,' whose job is to keep everybody under control, for which rape and beatings are often used. Sometimes a boga travels with them, though sometimes they do not, and the truck meets with bogas at each waypoint. The trucks, unknown to the driver, collaborators, and passengers are also loaded down with hidden drugs, weapons, and money also being trafficked through the desert. Travel conditions are brutal as they are under the desert sun all day while also crammed in the back of the truck, often sitting on, or under, others. At night they sleep on the ground unless they stop in a town, where they stay in ghettos or halls. There is limited room to carry water, so if they do not make it to the next well on schedule, it can have fatal results. Bread is also carried as food for everybody. A smooth trip through the desert to Libya can take from one week to one month. However, for people whose sponsors did not give money up-front, a boga may force them to prostitute to reimburse him for his expenses thus far, which may lead to them spending several months in Niger. Robberies, kidnappings, and rape by `hooligans' is also common in the desert. When these attacks occur, nothing ever happens to the drivers, collaborators, bogas, or secret cargo, and it is the boga who negotiates with the sponsors for the money to free the kidnapped, hinting at their involvement.

In crossing the Libyan border, those without money are always raped, both males and females, and usually without condoms. To protect the virginity of young girls, they are raped anally. Sometimes madams are also being trafficked by land, but because they have learned some Arabic, know how to dress like a Libyan, and have money, they are never touched by guards. HIV is rampant among the border guards, and while males never go for medical checkups, 30-40 % of the females that Ekhikhebolo has worked with over the years, have HIV.

The situation in Libya is an exacerbated version of what happens in Niger. The local Libyan street gang, the Asma Boys, are responsible for the robberies, kidnappings, rapes, and murders, while again, the traffickers remain unharmed. Ekhikhebolo estimates that over half of all females crossing through Libya are kidnapped at least once. Males are rarely kidnapped because nobody would pay for their release, while sponsors will pay for the liberation of females. Ekhikhebolo also estimates that approximately 80 % of females are forced to prostitute in Libya, as any money they had rarely survives the long journey. Many women become pregnant and have abortions, either using drugs or something long and sharp, which often leads to gynecological problems. It is important to note that the entire cost of the journey is usually funded by the sponsor, and any additional costs, such as kidnapping, medical checks, or abortions result in an increase of the debt owed by the person. The total time spent in Libya can range from several weeks to one year.

To cross the Mediterranean requires careful planning based on the availability of boats, the weather, and Coast Guard patrols, which details about are acquired through bribery. When it is time to cross, boats are loaded with those being trafficked, and two (usually males) are trained to operate it. The cost of crossing is approximately $500-1200 for males and $1000-1500 for females. A boat operated by Libyans will sail out to lead the boats across the sea. When they reach Italian waters and are in the path of the Coast Guard patrol, the Libyans will turn back to their coast, leaving the boats to be rescued. Sometimes, for various unknown reasons, the Libyans will puncture the boats causing them to sink, usually killing everybody on board. Other times, the weather, or the overloaded state of the boats also cause them to sink before they have a chance to be rescued.

For those who are rescued, they are brought to one of the many refugee camps around Italy. Before boarding the boat in Libya, everybody is trained in how to deal with the Italian authorities. They have premade stories to ensure that they are treated as refugees. Leaders are also chosen within the groups and given a mobile phone with numbers preprogrammed into it so they can contact their madams once they arrive. The conditions in the refugee camps are reported to be quite hospitable, and each person is supposed to receive a small daily allowance, as well. Everybody is free to leave the camp, but usually for a limited amount of time. The group leaders use this situation to arrange to meet their traffickers. Some may have madams in the North of Italy, such as Turin, and, in those cases, they will flee the refugee camp and make their way North, while those with local madams will live in the refugee camp while working regularly in prostitution.

Ekhikhebolo states that nearly 100 % of the Nigerians crossing the sea to Italy are being trafficked and know they are being trafficked for sex work. For those that managed to maintain their virginity throughout the trip, often the madam will hire a group of boys to gang-rape them to `break them in' and desensitize them to sex work, often with the madam present in the room. However, for most, their experiences in Niger and Libya already prepared them for prostitution in Italy, which is why they seek to escape the refugee camps to work for their madams.

A fundamental difference in ST to Italy compared to Russia is that in Italy there is a law which grants 5 years of asylum to people who admit they were trafficked and give information on their traffickers to authorities. However, traffickers know and exploit this law by training people in what to say so that they are granted asylum while authorities do not glean enough information to catch anybody, allowing the person to stay legally in the country, reducing the risk, and while still working in prostitution. Having realized their law is being exploited, Italian authorities rarely give the asylum anymore, though the law is still in existence. This is still important, however, in that it changes the trafficking situation and gives bargaining power to people. Otherwise, they would give real information to authorities to claim their asylum. The result is that, in Italy, there is freedom of movement, and the people usually have payment plans to balance their debt, meaning that they are able to earn money for themselves and their families while still under debt bondage. This also makes it rare for people to try to escape from trafficking in Italy.

For those who do complete their debt, first, they have a celebration for the conclusion of their juju oath, and their documents, and whatever articles taken from them for the ritual are returned to them, or their family. Afterward, they usually continue to work in prostitution, begin sponsoring others as a trafficker, or collaborate with the Nigerian mafia in drug trafficking. It is very rare that they will seek legitimate opportunities after concluding ST.

3.2.1 Nigeria - Italy Power - Dependence Mechanisms

In the case of Nigeria - Italy ST, the person first finds themselves disadvantaged in a power imbalance in the home as their position of vulnerability is abused by an individual in a position of authority, such as their mother. Being prepared and groomed from a young age to go to Italy to support the family, the child never had a chance to seek other opportunities. Then, again, once the sponsorship starts and they find themselves socially and financially indebted, and spiritually bound, the power imbalance begins to grow. When they find themselves on the perilous desert journey, beleaguered by the pressure to move forward, and physically unable to go back, relying on the traffickers to ensure their safety, they have no choice but to accept their fate and move forward. Throughout all of the hardships faced, they are met with the impossibility of return and are thus forced to adapt to their situations in order to survive, physically, mentally, and emotionally. By the time they reach Italy, they are no longer the naпve people who left Nigeria and realize that after the hell they have been through, life in Italy and the rewards to be gained from it, are heaven in comparison. This makes them a much more willing accomplice in their own trafficking compared to the people trafficked to Moscow, who do not have this painful transition. This hypothesis of transformation is based on theories and assumptions and has not been tested.

3.3 Nigerian Sex Trafficking as an Institution

Having outlined the ST cycles to Moscow and Italy, and following the theory presented in chapter one regarding institutions, we can now examine Nigerian ST as an institution. As ST is not officially prescribed by the state or legally sanctioned by any authoritative body, if it is to be an institution, it must be an informal one. As identified in chapter one, an informal institution affects the structure of a situation in which actions are selected, and those situations are generally political, economic, religious, and social relations. They `solve' many exchange problems and enable a flow of exchanges without the burden of formality. We can now look at how ST structures political, economic, religious, and social relations, enabling exchange.

The bureaucracy in Nigeria is quite cumbersome and unwieldy. The ST institution, however, has been able to simplify bureaucracy in that the possible outcomes include the use of corruption, forgery, coercion, and exploitation of legal loopholes to bypass otherwise bureaucratic nightmares. Corruption allows for the easy acquisition of unscrutinised passports and visas, to cross borders, and to avoid harassment by law enforcement. Forgery produces legal documents without the need for the application process. Coercion ensures the compliance of everybody involved. And the exploitation of legal loopholes such as Italy's asylum law, and the legal complexity of investigating ST, allows traffickers to operate relatively unhindered as they cross borders, and violate many laws in several countries. Another influence that ST has on political relations is that officials know that there are no viable mechanisms available to grant a better outcome for people who are trafficked, so they allow it to continue.

Economic opportunities in an over-populated, under-educated, under-developed country like Nigeria are very scarce. ST enables outcomes which are otherwise not available. While exact numbers are not available, ST is a multi-billion dollar industry, employing families, recruiters, facilitators, juju priests, corrupt officials, forgers, bogas, drivers, collaborators, kidnappers, madams, and sex workers. The money generated by ST is a major source of income for the community. Decision-making within the community is affected by the economic opportunities available, and with ST being one of the most lucrative, it greatly affects decisions.

While it seems counter-intuitive, religion and ST are closely linked. Juju rituals exist for those who want to exercise power over others, and ST gives them the opportunity to do so. Also, given that a high position within the church community translates into a high position in society, the ST community has interlaced itself with the church community, in that pastors are recruiters, benefactors are traffickers, and church attendance is given as a reward to people who are obedient to their madams. Climbing the ranks of ST allows you to climb the ranks of the church community, thus enabling you to climb the ranks of society, which is the next point.

ST allows for social mobility. When somebody is able to travel to Europe and come home with money to build a house and buy a car, it does not matter if it is a doctor or a sex worker, they become respected in society. Given the low time and financial investment costs of ST compared to medicine, ST provides what many believe to be a more attractive method of achieving social mobility. A darker side to the social possibilities made available by ST is evident by the demand for African sex workers in post-colonial countries. The demand for the nameless mass prostitute, the Nigerian, the other, an easy victim of violence, inferiorization, racism, sexism, an outlet for animosity. ST makes it possible and affordable for frustrated clients to vent their physical, sexual, and emotional angst which would be impossible and unacceptable against somebody of the same race (Massari, 2009) The ideas in this chapter come not only from Massari's 2009 paper, but also from a personal interview with her on February 23, 2017 in Florence..

Having looked at how ST structures different kinds of relations, let us now look at how ST structures itself. As it has already been said, ST is highly structured. Key actors are filling specific roles, conducting specific activities in specific locations. Also, unlike Italian crime families, each actor within the ST structure is replaceable. The ST structure is not an actual organization with a hierarchy and people hired to fulfill specific roles. Instead, it is an aspect of society, an institution, with many individual agents performing interdependently through social networks. Positions are filled by opportunity and demand - that is, for example, if the current number of drivers could not seem to meet the demand for drivers, the complaints rippling through social networks would signal an opportunity to become a driver. ST is essentially its own economy.

Trust is necessary for any economy to flourish, and homogeneity generally allows for trust, two conditions that are far from prevalent in Nigeria at the national level because of ethnic, lingual, and religious fractionalization (Alesina et al., 2003; Odera, 2013). However, the socioeconomic institution that is ST is able to thrive because the majority of ST happens within one tribe in Nigeria, the Igbo tribe. Given the distrust between Nigerians and the outside world, and between different tribes within Nigeria, having nobody else to trust increases the amount of trust within the tribe, and enhances the functionality of ST as an institution.

3.4 The Institutional Framework and Embeddedness of Nigerian ST

With the institutionalization of ST being clear, an analysis of its interactions with other relevant institutions will reveal its place within society. As it was said earlier, not all institutions are embedded, and even those that are embedded will not be embedded in the same way. Every institution interacts with other institutions within its institutional environment in different ways. As each institution permits a range of outcomes, prohibits specific outcomes, or sets the punishment for specific outcomes, the embedded institution acts within the parameters of what is allowed by the institutions around it. However, not all institutions are of equal strength, and their ability to punish offenders needs to be taken into account as well. For example, the institution of vegetarianism has the power to socially punish people in regions of India, while it has no authority in Canada. Knowing which institutions support and facilitate ST, and how they manage to do this, allows for the creation of a holistic strategy to disembed it.

3.4.1 Formal Rules and their Enforcement

In a study by Kunиiи (2014) of the strength of institutions in 84 countries around the world, based on formal legal, political, and economic institutions, with scores of 0.39, 0.36, and 0.51 (out of 1), respectively, Nigeria ranks as the 11^th weakest for legal and economic institutions, and 15^th weakest for political institutions. In more recent studies of institutional quality and governance, by the Quality of Government project (Dahlberg et al., 2017), Nigeria is the 11^th weakest country in the world in the Quality of Government indicator, based on corruption, law and order, and bureaucratic quality, with a score of 0.28 out of 1. Other relevant indicators showing the weakness of Nigeria's formal institutions are: order and security (global weakest); global terrorism index (4^th worst); percentage of people who have recently paid a bribe to police (2^nd most, 81 %); corruption perception of police (5^th most); favoritism in decisions of government officials (9^th most); political corruption (12^th worst); firms needing to pay bribes to officials (3^rd most); firms with female participation in ownership (15^th lowest; 16 %); ease of doing business index (19^th most difficult); educational system quality (37^th worst; score 3/7); recently paid bribe to education system (20^th most; 30 %); unemployment rate (6^th highest; 21.1 %); legal structure and security of property rights (13^th worst; 3.4/10); human rights and rule of law (20^th worst, tied with Iraq); civil liberties (31^st worst); `workers rights' received lowest possible score; `women's economic rights' received the lowest possible score, meaning that there are no specific rights in the law and discrimination may be built into the law; `freedom of foreign movement' received the lowest possible score, meaning movement out of the country is strictly limited; and `socio-economic barriers' received a score of 2/10, meaning that many people are excluded from society due to poverty and inequality. In the Global Competitiveness Report (Schwab & Sala i Martin, 2016), out of 138 countries, Nigeria is ranked as the worst country for health and primary education; the 6^th worst for infrastructure; and the 20^th worst for institutions, giving an overall ranking for basic requirements of 3^rd worst in the world. Nigeria is also ranked as 13^th worst in the world for higher education, and the trends are showing that education at all levels is deteriorating in the country.

The above indicators show that Nigeria is a country where life is tough, especially for women, and that it is the weakness of the formal institutions of the country which create this desperate situation. It is clear that many people would prefer to leave a situation like this, but as it was also shown, movement outside the country is strictly limited, not just by destination countries, but by Nigeria itself. According to Section 36 ("The Immigration Act [Nigeria]," 1963), "the Minister may […]by order prohibit the departure of any person from Nigeria; and if the travel documents of any person are not in proper order or there is […]an unsatisfied order of a court of competent jurisdiction or warrant of arrest relating to that person, an immigration officer may refuse to allow such person to leave Nigeria". In 2013, 106,739 people were refused departure according to this law, while only 1,241 were refused entry into foreign countries (Isiugo-Abanihe, 2016, p. 37).

A short summary of the above information is that the formal institutional environment in Nigeria presents more obstacles to progress than opportunities, which has led to many people wanting to leave. Furthermore, the official rules surrounding emigration also create roadblocks, making many Nigerians prisoners in their own country. However, the efficacy of any prison depends on the ability of the infrastructure and the guards to hold the prisoners in. As it was also shown above, the police force in Nigeria is one of the most corrupt in the world, while Nigeria's infrastructure is one of the worst in the world. This means that the formal institutional environment in Nigeria creates a situation where people want to leave, and forces them to leave through irregular means, and is unable to prevent them from doing so.

3.4.2 The Economy

The economic drivers of ST are obvious. When 77 % of working Nigerians make less than $2 per day, and another 21 % are unemployed (UNDP, 2015), being able to make thousands of dollars per month doing sex work in Europe represents an enormous opportunity. Moreover, large flows of money are entering the Nigerian economy through remittances sent from Nigerians abroad to their families in Nigeria. While one study has shown that remittances do not have a uniform developmental effect in the region, they have been shown to increase the socioeconomic situation of recipients. And, while the majority of remittances are spent on personal, household expenses, at least 30 % is dedicated to education and business investments (Augustine & Sunday, 2015), which indirectly affect development.

Also of worthy note is that there are no training or education costs for ST. The economic model of education costs and benefits says that if your lifetime earnings minus the costs of training is greater than your lifetime earnings if you did not receive training, then it is worthwhile to undertake the training (Kolosnitsyna, 2015). Based on the situation in Nigeria, it is highly unlikely that the model for any of the people who end up trafficked would recommend receiving the training and finding a legitimate job. In Nigeria, it would be necessary to add probabilities to the model to make an accurate recommendation, because weak enforcement of property rights, poor workers' rights, socio-economic barriers, and institutionalized discrimination against women mean that opportunities are never guaranteed. While there are extreme dangers and probabilities to be considered with ST as well, given the overwhelming odds against uneducated women in Nigeria, ST must seem more realistic. And, as Polanyi said, "social relations are embedded in the economy," meaning that economic factors do much to shape the way we act and interact with each other, making it a primary driver of ST.

3.4.3 The Family

Arguably, in many societies, the primary duty of a family is to look out for and ensure the well-being of its members. The term `well-being,' however, can have different meanings in different situations. While it may seem like a dereliction of duty to coerce a child into ST, if it results in the child's empowerment, and an increase in the well-being of the rest of the family, is it still a failure? Nigeria has the 10^th highest fertility rate in the world with 5.7 births per woman (Dahlberg et al., 2017), and in all of my interviews with Nigerians, I was told that the father rarely plays his role in parenthood, leaving the mother to make the decisions, run the household, and possibly be the breadwinner as well. This situation is even more pronounced in the case of polygamy, which is prominent in Nigeria, in which case a man can have many wives with each of them having many children. I was told that it is up to each mother to provide for her own children in polygamous marriages. When such a burden is placed on one person, especially in an institutional environment as in Nigeria, it can be expected that they will take advantage of any opportunity they encounter. When that opportunity is to send a child to Europe, allowing her to support the family and also rise up in the community herself, she can only agree, or continue to shoulder the burden for the rest of her life. And for the child that grows up in this situation, appreciating the work her mother does to take care of them, the opportunity to work and support her mother and siblings is a blessing.

3.4.4 Religion

While it would seem that religion would be the antithesis of ST, we must consider the goals of religion, and also those of religious organizations. Religious organizations seek to create and build up a community, and if corrupt, to utilize and manipulate that community to gain power. Religion aims to replace insecurity with faith and gives tools for personal development. Within ST, religion and religious organizations attempt to fulfill these same goals. I have heard many stories of pastors being involved in recruitment and trafficking, and there is currently a trial being held against Pastor Tim Omotoso, for 22 counts of trafficking and sexual abuse (Vanguard NGR, 2017).

In the administration phase of the trafficking process, there is the juju, or traditional oath, of which Ikeora (2016) has much to say. Essentially, since formal contracts to bind parties to the debt bondage agreements are impossible, oath-taking is used. Even though there are many religions in Nigeria, and Nigeria is the 15^th most religiously fractionalized country in the world (Alesina et al., 2003; Dahlberg et al., 2017), there appears to be a real fear of the consequences of breaking these oaths. As Ikeora points out, oath-taking, juju, and superstition are institutionalized in Nigeria (p. 11), meaning it delineates possible sets of outcomes, thereby affecting behaviors. Juju, however, is more than a means of spiritual punishment, and the oath is accompanied by a blessing of protection to put the person at ease. At the end of the debt bondage, there is also a celebration and an annulment of the oath. For traffickers, there is also a juju ritual to give them power and dominance over others.

In the host country, Christian Nigerians, as `others,' seek the comfort of the local Nigerian community through church-related events. Through the church, the traffickers, the gangsters, the students, and the legitimate business people socialize and form a cohesive community. Ekhikhebolo told me that the people who have been trafficked are only allowed to go to church if they are loyal and close with their madams, making attendance at church a reward. Given the nature of ST - the othering' and the isolation - the chance to become part of a community is a great reward. Social interaction is one of a human's basic needs, and while sex work may seem like a lot of social interaction, the distance that people put between their real selves and their work selves may prevent this. Within the church community, the opportunity to donate to causes, make connections, and host events allows somebody to climb the social ladder. The higher you climb within the church community, the more power you have within that community as well, and I have heard many stories of the members of the board of directors of a church settling disputes between members and even intervening with authorities to have trafficked people returned to their madams.

3.4.5 Informal Institutions

Normally, in an underdeveloped country with weak formal institutions like Nigeria, it is the informal institutions which really structure the realms of possibilities. However, in a study by Williamson (2009), not only did she find Nigeria to have extremely low formal institutions, but very low informal institutions as well. While it may seem an impossible task to measure informal institutions, Williamson based her measurements on four components of culture which should constrain behavior, namely trust, respect, individual self-determination, and obedience, as they govern both social and economic interaction. With low formal and informal institutions, this means that neither the government nor society is effective in creating and enforcing the rules of society, enabling a chaotic state of affairs.

While many might consider the content of this research to be a reason to label Nigeria and its people as an unmanageable society, we must remember that the persistence of institutions means that they are inherited, with current members of society caught in the vicious path of those institutions. When the British colonized the area, the creation of a border encapsulating many different tribes speaking many different languages, forcing them to live together in one state, under one rule, created a highly fractionalized society (Alesina et al., 2003; Dahlberg et al., 2017) with more than 500 ethnic groups (Findlay, 2017). Furthermore, because the disease situation of the region precluded the British from settling the area, as they had in other colonies such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, they established Nigeria as an extractive state, with extractive, exploitative institutions. These institutions would have included the conferment of power, and the means to enforce that power, to the people they believed would have helped ensure their interests in the region (Acemoglu et al., 2000). This exogenously imposed power imbalance would have created conflict and distrust, resulting in social and political discrimination along ethnic lines, greatly affecting the economic performance of different ethnic groups. Alesina et al. (2016) found that fractionalization coupled with economic performance differences between groups negatively affects socioeconomic development.

Another institution imposed on Nigeria was the commodification of humans through the slave trade. Nigeria was the fifth largest source of slaves in the world (Dahlberg et al., 2017), and slavery was not officially abolished there until 1936 (Lovejoy & Hogendorn, 1993). Nunn shows that slave trade history has an adverse impact on economic development (2008), and also trust (Nunn & Wantchekon, 2011), while Tшnnessen (2016) shows that a history of the slave trade correlates to increased trafficking at the present time. While slaves were initially captured through organized raids and war, insecurity led individuals to turn on one another, including family and friends, tricking or kidnapping to sell each other into slavery (Hair, 1965; Koelle, 1854; Nunn & Wantchekon, 2011, p. 3221; Piot, 1996).

While Nigeria's history has left it with a chaotic environment which accepts the commodification of humans and creates mass distrust between ethnic groups, ST still requires mechanisms to thrive as it does. Both corruption and social networks supply these mechanisms. Corruption is widespread in Nigeria and allows for the purchase of unscrutinised documents, the cooperation of officials, the bypassing of borders, and the evasion from law enforcement. Social networks are what allows a major ST operation, which does not have a strict hierarchy, to function smoothly. The different players in ST all seem to be independent agents, yet for ST to be successful, there must be cooperation and trust between all points in the network. Given the distrust previously mentioned in Nigerian society, the only way ST can operate as it does is through social networks. Kinship, friendships, and the community make up the ST network, and customarily all within the Igbo tribe. De Santis, the Carabinieri officer, said that infiltrating the Nigerian mafia is impossible because they do not trust anybody that they have not already known from back home or through a friend. Also, for the sexual exploitation of children in Italy, the only clients allowed are Africans, because of the paranoia of infiltration, and child exploitation is not so easily ignored by authorities as it is for adults From personal communication with Ekhikhebolo, Feb and Mar 2017, Naples, Italy..

While the previous points explain how ST can be facilitated and accepted by society, it is also important to consider how it can be accepted by the individual. Effiom and Ubi (2015, p. 262) enlighten us to the fact that obedience to a master, sometimes for up to seven years, with the expectation that one day they will become a master, is commonplace and a part of the culture of the Igbo tribe. When this seven-year apprenticeship is compared to two years of debt bondage in ST, after which the person can make much more money than they could in Nigeria, debt bondage in Europe appears to represent a move towards progress. Furthermore, discrimination and physical and sexual violence towards women are pervasive in Nigeria. Not only is sexual violence widespread, with 70 % of women between the ages of 15 and 49 admitting to having experienced sexual violence, but it is also tolerated, with 44 % of all women surveyed saying that it is tolerable. Within the 44 % that tolerate gender-based violence, 68 % of them have never experienced gender-based violence, while 32 % had (Titilayo, Omisakin, & Ehindero, 2014). When considering that women have the option to live poor, oppressed, dominated, and sexually abused in Nigeria, or middle class, empowered, and sexually exploited in Europe, it is not so difficult to imagine why they would choose ST.

3.4.6 Summary

As it can be seen throughout this chapter, the weak formal and informal institutions in Nigeria have created a state which is considered among the most uncontrollable in the world in terms of law and order. Many of the laws meant to change the tide have been exogenously introduced, yet the weak state is unable to enforce them. There is no trust between the populace and the government, between ethnic or religious groups, or even between individuals, preventing opportunities for cooperation, organization, social action or societal enforcement. Not only does this reduce opportunities for legitimate personal and social growth, but it paves the way for illicit activities to flourish. Individuals, families, and communities, finding themselves in desperate situations, turn to what, in their mind, has always worked, what there has always been a demand for - human trafficking. Globalization, their history, and their institutions tell them that `The West is the Best', and that white people are willing to pay for exploited black people. On top of this, the overarching discrimination and sexual violence against women in Nigeria, as well as a culture of prolonged domination, creates a further individual incentive to leave, at any cost. So, without other opportunities, and without anybody to stop them, of course, they turn to ST.